Illinois State linebacker Tye Niekamp reached 400 career tackles Saturday during Illinois State’s 17-10 victory against Indiana State at Hancock Stadium. (Photo by GoRedbirds.com)
By Barry Bottino
NORMAL — As a freshman at Illinois State, defensive lineman Ben Harman was looking for good examples to follow.
“Coming in, you could point to guys who were just competitors,” he said.
There was future Baltimore Ravens safety Keondre Jackson, who was a senior, and a sophomore linebacker – Tye Neikamp — who was about to about to burst onto the national scene.
“One thing I noticed was Tye just loves football,” said Harman, now a junior at ISU. “He’s one of the best competitors I’ve gotten to see on the practice field. No one practices like him. No one has the energy and the drive.
“It’s been incredibly encouraging to know that if I want to have that same type of career that he’s had and the success that he’s had, I would be able to look at him and say, ‘How is he practicing? How is he competing every down?’”
On Saturday, Niekamp’s career reached an impressive milestone with his 400th career tackle at Illinois State. He is one of only five players to reach that mark with the Redbirds.
A three-time All-Missouri Valley Football Conference player, Neikamp has earned multiple All-America honors, was the MVFC’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2025 and finished eighth last season in voting for the Buck Buchanan Award, which goes to the best defensive player in FCS.
After a second-quarter tackle Saturday, the Hancock Stadium public address announcer shared the achievement, leading to an ovation from the sold-out Homecoming crowd of 11,280.
“It was just a really special moment, especially at Homecoming,” said Neikamp, who had a team-high 12 tackles Saturday to reach 407 for his career. “I took a picture before (the postgame press conference) with all the people that came today. There were like 30 people supporting me. It was a really cool moment. It’s definitely something that’s going to stick with me for the rest of my life.”
Niekamp, who has started 47 career games, achieved the 17th double-digit tackle game of his career against Indiana State. He ranks fifth in career tackles for ISU. With one tackle for loss in Saturday’s game, he also moved into a fourth-place tie all time with former teammate Zeke Vandenburgh at 43.5.
“It’s pretty crazy to have 400 tackles,” he said. “I was a walk-on kid. Four-and-a-half years ago, if you told me I’d have 400 tackles, I would have said you were crazy.”
Barry Bottino is a co-founder of Prairie State Pigskin and a 19-year veteran of three Illinois newspapers. He has covered college athletics since 1995.
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